Tuesday, 8 February 2011

I'm very much counting down the days until Saturday. I really want to see the team put right the situation they found themselves in after the game with Newcastle. Having a pointless international friendly right before the next round of the Champions League is absolutely crazy and it's why I hate international football so much.

At the moment it's very much a case of sitting a stewing on the result. There is no immediate chance to put it right and although I was happier at 7.30pm on Saturday after the Manchester United result, I'm more gloomier today.

That said, we are one point closer to them and they've lost their unbeaten run.... is there house of cards about to come crashing down? Let's hope so!

The newspapers are still full of reaction to the draw. Laurent Koscielny has been speaking as has Theo Walcott and according to the Englishman Walcott, the players were cheered up by the result from Molineux.

"We've gained a point on United, that's how I've looked on it. Wolves did us a favour.

"When we landed back at Luton from Newcastle, we all put on our phones and had a little check at the United score. Everybody had grins on their faces.

"It changed our mood and the manager's mood as well. It's a point gained."

I wouldn't call the result a point gained, but he is quite right, we have reduced the gap at the top. Ferguson's men host their rivals City at the weekend in the early Saturday kick off, so I really hope Roberto Mancini goes there for the win.

Then we've got to take full advantage if that does happen.

There will be no investigation into Phil Dowd's performance, which Arsenal would have to complain about to Mike Riley. It's never going to happen. I'm asked from time to time why there is no word in the English media about how bad a referee's performance is. Quite simply, a bad performance from any of the officials isn't exactly news. It happens every week. I'd imagine you could fill a newspaper in its own right with articles about poor referee's and their assistants after a weekend of action.

Neither will there be an Interpol investigation, which turns out to be a complete hoax. The Telegraph had a story on their website yesterday but it appears to have been taken down. However their chief sports reporter Paul Kelso says all you need to know in a tweet:

Nicklas Bendtner was put before the media yesterday ahead of Denmark's game with England on Wednesday. He says a lot of interesting stuff, including making a decision about his Arsenal future in the summer. Read more on the Mirror Football site.

Five of our players pulled out of their counties games tomorrow. Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Kieran Gibbs, Johan Djourou and Aaron Ramsey won't be playing any part for their counties. Hopefully they will all be fit by the weekend. The official site has a list of those players representing their counties, if you are at all bothered.

There is as yet no update on Johan Djourou. I've got everything crossed in expectation of good news.

Southampton chairman Nicola Cortese has been talking about the Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain saga. I've learnt a bit more about the deal which I've not got time to go into now, so will deal with it in a post, hopefully later today.

Finally, The Sun are speculating that Chelsea are planning to bid £50 million for Cesc Fabregas. There are loads of reasons why Cesc wouldn't want to play for them the first being he'd be team mates with John Terry.